Contenu du sommaire : « La proximité : 15 ans déjà ! »

Using contributions of American institutionalists and philosophers of mind, we propose to look further into the definitions of the three traditional forms of the proximity. First, we define geographical proximity as relational availability. Second, we explain that institutional proximity is an effect of institutions. In this case, actors share common significances and play complementary roles in collective action. Third, organisational proximity, according to distinction suggested by COMMONS between institution and organization, is understood as a particular form of institutional proximity which articulates cognitive coordination and political coordination. Actors integrate cognitive community, i.e. reach memory of organization made up of rules and routines, and integrate political community, i.e. take place in power structure.

Socio-economics of proximity In 1993, Revue d'Economie Régionale et Urbaine published a special issue on Proximity Dynamics in which several scholars proposed a first distinctive approach between geographical proximity and organized proximity to provide clearer explanations on the spatial dimension of economic activities. The aim of this paper is to suggest a new typology based on the latest development of sociological economy. First, our analysis is based on drawing a distinction between spatial and socioeconomic proximity. Secondly, we have divided the socioeconomic proximity into two sub-categories, focusing on resource-based proximity and then on coordination proximity which include relational proximity (social networks dimension) and mediation proximity (institutional dimension). Finally, we will highlight the interrelations between these forms of proximity and the key-role played by the embeddedness and decoupling processes.

Les fondements théoriques de la compétitivité urbaine : quel rôle pour la proximité ? In this paper we seek to accomplish two main tasks. The first is to lay out the different theoretical approaches to understanding the concept of competitiveness as it applies at the spatial level of city regions. We provide a definition of what the concept means at this level. We then examine the different but sometimes overlapping theories that seek to explain what makes city regional economies competitive. These include export base, increasing returns, knowledge and innovation, cluster and cultural economy theories. The second task is to understand the roles of different concepts of proximity in these theories. Here we make a broad distinction between spatial nearness, organizational interactions and cultural proximity. We conclude that all three of these play significant roles in the competitiveness of city economies with the most competitive successfully combining geographically local assets with knowledge and information from other places.

Proximity and relocations : the case of the software sector

The objective of this article is to investigate the dynamics of relocations, in particular in the “high-technology” sectors and in a context of growing media focus on the danger of such activities on the part of firms. By proposing a grid of “dynamics of proximities”, we focus on the case of the software sector. The current level of understanding of whether geographical proximity determines which activities can or cannot potentially be relocated is insufficient to explain the situation in this industry. As we will see in the second part, relocations, to be achieved, need organisational and institutional proximities to support the economic coordination among entities and between actors.

Des proximités différenciées : l'exemple de l'innovation dans les TIC et les biotechnologies This paper reports upon ESRC-funded findings on regional innovation and knowledge spillovers arising from a research spotlighting UK ICT and biotechnology firms. It appraises the basic question as to whether UK firms in clusters perform better on growth and innovation indicators than similar firms not in clusters. It also offers an advance in our understanding of the persistence and conceivable reinforcement of an asymmetric economic geography of prosperity and accomplishment, in an evolving and intensifying knowledge economy, science-driven and otherwise technologically sophisticated economic activity that gives rise to demands upon industry organisation that reinforce collaborative activity among smaller knowledge-intensive businesses.

Information technologies adoption and localized knowledge diffusion : an empirical study We use a specially designed survey on French firms to provide empirical evidence suggesting that IT adoption is not only influenced by the traditional factors of technology diffusion (rank, stock-order, epidemic effects and organizational practices) but also by localized knowledge spillovers. We make several advances. Firstly, we study the adoption of authentic Information and Communication Technologies while the recent empirical literature has been mainly focused on computer capital stocks or automation tools. Secondly, we construct measures to replace the traditional epidemic effect by different proximity variables. Thirdly, we examine different channels of knowledge transmission among nearby firms, from unintended knowledge spillovers to well-regulated arrangements. Our econometric methodology is designed to deal with potential biases that are encountered when implementing technology adoption equations. In particular, we explicitly deal with the problem of simultaneous technological choices, using bivariate adoption equations.

Local scientific watch : measuring cooperation between actors and territories Like firms, local authorities lead more and more an economic watch to better know their environment and to anticipate evolutions. In the knowledge economy, watch led by authorities concerns local innovation dynamics. The aim of this article is to present an approach based on local scientific watch, which allows to measure the scientific production of a given territory and to analyse research activities'organisation at a local level. This approach has been applied to the area of Saint-Etienne and allows us to better apprehend the geographical and organisational dimensions of the scientific cooperations in which local actors are implied.

Geographic and technological proximities at the intra-regional level : biotechnology in Ile-de-France region In this paper, we propose an exploratory approach which is essentially methodological and empirical in order to explore geographic proximity at the intra-regional level. Recent works suggest that a firm has to be located in a close neighborhood in order to benefit from knowledge externalities, but these works do not control for technological proximity. In this paper we hypothesize that geographic proximity measures other phenomenon that mere spatial distance (ORLANDO, 2004) ; we suggest that specialization effects play a dominant role over the geographic proximity at the intra-regional level. We apply two separate methods to a sample of 60 biotechnology firms located in Ile-de-France region over the period 2001-2005, in order to measure and control for technological proximity when we estimate the impact of geographic proximity on the firm's innovativeness. Our results suggest that the technological proximity is dominant over the geographic one at the intra-regional level.